Comments on: Spoling Changes

By: Albeytar

Albeytar — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 12:35:12 +0000

Tom Bates:- “What these people always fail to mention is which English pronounciation is to be the basis…..”
As a bossy middle-class person with too much time on my hands could I persuade you that “pronunciation” should be the basis?

By: Former Tory

Former Tory — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 22:02:50 +0000

http://members.aol.com/VoxVideus/meihem.html

A little bit of fun from 1946.

By: diogenes1960

diogenes1960 — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 20:17:54 +0000

just think of the meanings of stock.. my dictionary lists 45 different ways to use that collection of 5 letters. However, depending on context, not many people would be confused about whether I was referring to a financial instrument, part of a gun, a necktie, an aromatic flower….

By: Mark Wadsworth

Mark Wadsworth — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 18:35:30 +0000

Tee hee, well done Phil T! I thought you’d get into hot water sooner or later, but hey, that was your call. You remember what happened to that Lib Dem councillor who said that cannabis should be legalised …

Anyway, I dropped in at PT’s to say ‘well done’ but the content filter operating at the hotel at which we are currently holidaying won’t let me because of obscene content, apparently his ‘blog contains the phrase “genital mutilation”. So I can’t visit Jewish or Islamic websites either then, presumably …

By: QuestionThat

QuestionThat — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 15:32:42 +0000

Then again, lots of words are spelt the same way even now, and still mean very different things.

By: alfred

alfred — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 12:33:20 +0000

And whilst we are on matters spelling, and being rather pendantish, @ Tom Bates Tim adds …..”(it’s many variants)” please remember the apostrophe is only used when it’s an abbreviation of “it is”.

By: john b

john b — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 12:08:13 +0000

Three cheers for Phil – it’s a fact that big knives *are* cool, that swishing them about the place *is* fun, and Lyn Costello *is* a poisonous ratbag. It’s almost enough to make me vote Tory…

By: Martin

Martin — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 09:56:35 +0000

The Scottish Parliament allows for the loyal oath to be taken in Doric and Lallans.

Give me RP any day.

By: Tom Bates

Tom Bates — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 09:43:18 +0000

Christ! You can tell it’s the silly season.

What these people always fail to mention is which English pronounciation is to be the basis for their new orthography. Or should American, Australian, Indian, Singaporean, Scots, Irish, Yorkshire, Cornish, Texan, South African etc etc ad nauseam English all be written in very different forms.

It’s just another (fortunately rather harmless) example of bossy middle class people with too much time on their hands trying to force everyone else to conform to their way of behaviour.

Tim adds: Excellent point. That is, of course, how Latin became Italian (it’s many variants), Spanish, French, Portuguese, Romanian etc.

By: Alexis

Alexis — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 08:52:19 +0000

you may have noticed how unintelligent and unsuccessful people are the world over if they have Mandarin as a first language. Oh hang on-

By: JuliaM

JuliaM — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 08:23:17 +0000

Oh, not these people again..!

By: Philip Thomas

Philip Thomas — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 07:55:34 +0000

Agreed, Tim. This isn't as simple as making it easier for people because it will introduce new complexities. BTW, have you seen that I'm now famous. Or perhaps that should be infamous. The media are swine.